1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a communication system; and, more particularly, to a channel allocation apparatus and method which allocates channels in consideration of transmission modes between a base station, for example, an access point (hereafter, referred to as ‘AP’) and a plurality of terminals, for example, stations (hereafter, referred to as ‘STAs’), and which minimizes channel interference of the channels allocated to the STAs during the channel allocation.
2. Description of Related Art
In a current communication system, research has been actively conducted to provide various qualities of services (hereafter, referred to as ‘QoS’) of services having a high transmission rate to users. Examples of the communication system may include a wireless local area network (hereafter, referred to as ‘WLAN’) system. In the WLAN system, research has been actively conducted on a variety of methods for stably transmitting large-volume data at high speed through limited resources. Particularly, in a communication system, research has been conducted on data transmission through wireless channels. Recently, in the WLAN system, there have been proposed a variety of methods for normally transmitting and receiving large-volume data by effectively using limited wireless channels.
Meanwhile, in a current communication system, there have been proposed a variety of methods for transmitting and receiving large-volume data to a plurality of users by effectively using limited frequency channels. Particularly, in a current WLAN system, there have been proposed methods for normally transmitting and receiving data by effectively using limited frequency channels, when a base station, for example, an access point (hereafter, referred to as ‘AP’) and a plurality of terminals corresponding to a plurality of users, for example, stations (hereafter, referred to as ‘STAs’) transmit and receive large-volume data through the limited frequency channels.
In the current WLAN system, however, when the limited frequency channels are allocated to the plurality of STAs and large-volume data are then transmitted and received through the allocated frequency channels, transmission methods between the AP and the STAs, that is, transmission modes are different for the respective STAs, and a specific method for allocating frequency channels to the STAs according to the respective transmission modes of the STAs has not yet been proposed. Furthermore, when channel interference occurs in the channels allocated to the STAs, data may not be normally transmitted and received due to the channel interference.
Therefore, there is a demand for a method for allocating channels to a plurality of STAs in consideration of transmission modes of the STAs, when large-volume data are transmitted and received through limited frequency channels between an AP and the STAs in a communication system, for example, a WLAN system. Furthermore, there is a demand for a channel allocation method for normally transmitting and receiving data by minimizing channel interference in the frequency channels allocated to the plurality of STAs.